Bowen: Stoke is right for Moses

28 August 2014 06:01

The Nigeria international put in a man-of-the-match performance on his Potters debut as Jon Walters (two) and Peter Crouch scored the goals which defeated League Two Portsmouth 3-0 in the Capital One Cup to set up a third-round trip to Sunderland.

Moses is on his second loan spell in successive seasons after a less-than-productive campaign at Liverpool but Bowen thinks the Britannia Stadium could be a place for him to reinvigorate himself.

"At the moment he is 99 per cent Premier League match fit and he tired a little bit in the second half and we brought him off to protect him," said the Welshman.

"With all due respect to Portsmouth he is used to playing against top-class defenders and causing them problems so it was maybe a tad easier for him tonight but he showed what he has got and always had - and he just needs that platform.

"Mark (Hughes) wants to give him that chance to get used to playing every week.

"When players go a couple of years of not playing every week they have to get used to that monotony of training every day to get ready for the games.

"It is no good for a player of his ability to just have cameo performances and hopefully we can give him the platform to do that this year."

It was a first defeat of the season for Portsmouth, flying high in League Two, and manager Andy Awford urged his players to take something from the experience.

"I thought our lads acquitted themselves well but there was obviously a difference in quality," he said.

"We've still lot and you don't like losing. You want to give a good account of yourselves against a well-established Premier League side.

"One of the things I've said to the players is remember the losing feeling because we've not had it since I've been here."